Para. 9

By the time we reached the house, my mother and sisters were wearing aprons and busying in the kitchen, as red-faced as the women who had been there all morning. The kitchen was the biggest room in the house and all family life save sleeping went on there. My uncle even had a couch along one wall where he napped and where the children lay when they were ill. The kitchen range was a tremendous black and gleaming one called a Smoke Eater, with pans bubbling over the holes above the fire box and a reservoir of hot water at the side, lined with dull copper, from which my uncle would dip a basin of water and shave above the sink, turning his lathered face now and then to drop a remark into the women’s talk, waving his straight-edged razor as if it were a threat to make them believe him. My job was to go to the woodpile out back and keep the fire burning, splitting the chunks of oak and hickory, watching how cleanly the ax went through the tough wood.

1. By the time we reached the house, my mother and sisters were wearing aprons and busying in the kitchen, as red-faced as the women who had been there all morning.

(1) busy: to make and keep busy (adj.→v.)

(2) red-faced: the women had been working all morning and it was warm in the kitchen

2.The kitchen was the biggest room in the house and all family life save sleeping went on there.

(1) the biggest room in the house: the center of the house where the most important activities were held. For such families, the kitchen is often a witness of the many gatherings held, the laughing and talking of family members and relatives, the growing up of kids, etc. Again this is typical of rural farm life. Nowadays for some families, the kitchen is no longer an indispensable part, for they are busy and often eat out or have takeaways.

(2) save: except

3. The kitchen range was a tremendous black and gleaming one called a Smoke Eater, with pans bubbling over the holes above the fire box and a reservoir of hot water at the side, lined with dull copper, from which my uncle would dip a basin of water and shave above the sink, turning his lathered face now and then to drop a remark into the women’s talk, waving his straight-edged razor as if it were a threat, to make them believe him.

(1) range: a unit for cooking typically including an oven and surface heating units, now usually operated by gas or electricity

(2) black and gleaming: black but not dirty, glowing, shining steadily

(3)Smoke Eater: Everything has a nickname, the kitchen range is personified.

(4) reservoir: a place where anything is collected and stored, generally in large quantity.

(5) from which my uncle would dip a basin of water and shave above the sink: This is a special occasion, and my uncle was making himself presentable.

(6)drop a remark into: say a few words

4. My job was to go to the woodpile out back and keep the fire burning, splitting the chunks of oak and hickory, watching how cleanly the ax went through the tough wood.

(1)What was the job of the author?

His job was to take care of the fire－to keep the fire burning; when firewood was not enough, he would have to split some taken from the pile.

(2) cleanly: in a regular, trim, well-formed, shapely manner

Para. 10

It was a handmade Christmas. The tree came from down in the grove, and on it were many paper ornaments made by my cousins, as well as beautiful ones brought from the Black Forest, where the family had originally lived. There were popcorn balls, from corn planted on the sunny slope by the watermelons, paper horns with homemade candy, and apples from the orchard. The gifts tended to be hand-knit socks, or wool ties, or fancy crocheted “yokes” for nightgowns, tatted collars for blouses, doilies with fancy flower patterns for tables, tidies for chairs, and once I received a brilliantly polished cow horn with a cavalryman crudely but bravely carved on it. And there would usually be a cornhusk doll, perhaps with a prune or walnut for a face, and a gay dress of an old corset-cover scrap with its ribbons still bright. And there were real candles burning with real flames, every guest sniffing the air for the smell of scorching pine needles. No electrically lit tree has the warm and primitive presence of a tree with a crown of living fires over it, suggesting whatever true flame Joseph may have kindled on that original cold night.

1. What is the topic sentence of Para. 10?

(1) It was a handmade Christmas.

(2)handmade: a clever way to describe the difference between Christmas today and that of the old days

2. The gifts tended to be hand-knit, or wool ties, or fancy crocheted “yokes” for nightgowns, tatted collars for blouses, doilies with fancy flower patterns for tables, tidies for chairs, and once I received a brilliantly polished cow horn with a cavalryman crudely but bravely carved on it.

(1) yoke: here used to mean a yoke-shaped piece of a garment （上衣、衬衫等的）抵肩，裙子的腰

(2) tidies for chair: decorative protective covering for the arms or headrest of a chair

(3) crude: not carefully made or done; rough

(4) brave: fine or splendid

(5) Note the detailed listing of gifts, homemade, practical, for everyday use, which reveals down-to-earth attitude of the farmers and their wonderful skill and design.

(6)礼物往往是手工编织的袜子、羊毛领带钩针编织的精美睡衣抵肩、梭织而成的衬衫衣领、布满花卉图案的小桌巾、搭在椅子扶手和靠背上的罩布，有一次我收到一个磨得光亮的牛角，上面刻着一名骑兵，虽然刻法简单，但也十分大胆好看。

3. And there would usually be a cornhusk doll, perhaps with a prune or walnut for a face, and a gay dress of an old corset-cover scrap with its ribbons still bright.

(1) a cornhusk doll: a doll made of cornhusk

(2) gay: bright; brilliant

(3) scrap: a small piece; bit; fragment; shred

4. And there were real candles burning with real flames, every guest sniffing the air for the smell of scorching pine needles.

(1) scorching: burning slightly

(2) Since the candles were put on top of the tree, the fire might scorch the pine needles, giving out such smell.

5. No electrically lit tree has the warm and primitive presence of a tree with a crown of living fires over it, suggesting whatever true flame Joseph may have kindled on that original cold night.

(1) warm and primitive presence: warm because of the candles; primitive in the sense that the tree and the candles were crude and simple

(2) a crown of living fires: metaphor, comparing the lit candles on top of the tree to a crown

(3) that original cold night: the night Jesus Christ was born

(4) Joseph: husband of Mary

(5) The author was yearning to go back to his childhood, when everything was closer to what must have happened on the original night.

Para. 11

There are no dinners like that any more: every item from the farm itself, with no deep freezer, no car for driving into town for packaged food. The pies had been baked the day before, pumpkin, apple, and mince; as we ate them, we could look out the window and see the cornfield where the pumpkins grew, the trees from which the apples were picked. There was cottage cheese, with the dripping bags of curds still hanging from the cold cellar ceiling. The bread had been baked that morning, heating up the oven for the meat, and as my aunt hurried by I could smell in her apron that freshest of all odors with which the human nose is honored—bread straight from the oven. There would be a huge brown crock of beans with smoked pork from the hog butchered every November. We could see, beyond the crock, the broad black iron kettle in a corner of the barnyard, turned upside down, the innocent hogs stopping to scratch on it.

1. There are no dinners like that any more: every item from the farm itself, with no deep freezer, no car for driving into town for packaged food.

(1) deep freezer:冷冻冰箱

(2) packaged food:袋装食品

(3)The author is sad that nowadays people do not have natural and fresh food from the farm. They just drive into town and get packaged food. The author obviously toes not think it is the proper way to celebrate Christmas

2. The pies had been baked the day before, pumpkin, apple, and mince; as we ate them,we could look out the window and see the cornfield where the pumpkins grew, the trees from which the apples were picked.

(1) mince: mincemeat, a mixture of chopped apples, spices, raisins, etc., and sometimes meat, used as a pie filling

(2) Few have the privilege nowadays to eat food that comes directly from the field. This is another reminder of the self-reliance of farmers－fruit of their own labor.

3. There was cottage cheese, with the dripping bags of curds still hanging from the cold cellar ceiling.

(1) cottage cheese: a soft, white cheese made of strained and seasoned curds of skim milk

(2) curd: the coagulated part of milk, from which cheese is made; it is formed when milk sours

4.The bread had been baked that morning, heating up the oven for the meat, and as my aunt hurried I could smell in her apron that freshest of all odors with which the human nose is honored-bread straight from the oven.

My aunt was heating up the oven for the meat, and she used this opportunity to bake bread.

5.There would be a huge brown crock of beans with smoked pork from the hog butchered every November.

(1) crock: an earthenware pot or jar

(2) smoked pork: pork treated with smoke, as in flavoring 熏肉

6.We could see, beyond the crock, the broad black iron kettle in a corner of the barnyard, turned upside down, the innocent hogs stopping to scratch on it.

The hogs did not know their fate. We can infer that the broad black iron kettle, now Turned upside down, was used when the hog was butchered, but the other hogs had no knowledge of it. When they scratched on it, they didn't know that they were to go to this kettle soon.

Para. 12

There would be every form of preserve: wild grape from the vines in the grove, crab apple jelly, wild blackberry and tame raspberry, strawberry from the bed in the garden, sweet and sour pickles with dill from the edge of the lane where it grew wild, pickles from the rind of the same watermelon we had cooled in the tank at the milk house and eaten on a hot September afternoon.

1. There would be every form of preserve...pickles from the rind of the same watermelon we had cooled in the tank at the milk house and eaten on a hot September afternoon.

(1) preserve: fruit preserved in whole or in large pieces by cooking with sugar

(2) jam, jelly, paste, sauce

jam: a food made by boiling fruit with sugar to a thick mixture

jelly: a soft, resilient, partially transparent, semisolid, gelatinous food resulting from the cooking of fruit juice boiled with sugar, or of meat juice cooked down

paste: a foodstuff, pounded or ground until fine and made creamy, soft, etc.(almond paste, liver paste, potato paste)

sauce: stewed or preserved fruit (Americanism)

(3) crab apple:山楂

(4) tame: cultivated, opposite of wild

(5) tank: any large container for liquid水箱

Para. 13

Cut into the slope of the hill behind the house, with a little door of its own, was the vegetable cellar, from which came carrots, turnips, cabbages, potatoes, squash. Sometimes my scared cousins were sent there for punishment, to sit in darkness and meditate on their sins; but never on Christmas Day. For days after such an ordeal they could not endure biting into a carrot.

1. Cut into the slope of the hill behind the house, with a little door of its own, was the vegetable cellar, from which came carrots, turnips, cabbages, potatoes, squash.

(1) Inverted order for balance and emphasis.

(2) Where was vegetable kept? Why were different kinds of vegetables kept there?

They were kept in the cave dug out in the fall. It would be cool there and therefore suitable for preserving vegetable.

(3)squash: the fleshy fruit of any of various plants of the gourd family, eaten as a vegetable南瓜、西葫芦等

2. Sometimes my scared cousins were sent there for punishment, to sit in darkness and meditate on their sins; but never on Christmas Day.

(1) The vegetable cellar has dual purposes.

(2) meditate: to think deeply and continuously: reflect: muse

(3) ponder, meditate, deliberate

These verbs mean to consider something carefully and at length.

To ponder is to weigh in the mind with painstaking thoroughness and care, e. g. He had been pondering on the significance of the events.

To meditate implies serious consideration, as of undertaking a course of action or of implementing a plan; the term can also denote engagement in deep reflection, e.g She sat there meditating on her misfortunes.

To deliberate is to think attentively and usually slowly, as about a choice or decision to be made, e. g. The jury deliberated for two days before giving a verdict.

(4) sin: a transgression of religious or moral law; more loosely it applies to something regarded as being utterly wrong

(5) Why were they never sent there on Christmas Day?

They were not sent there because it was holiday. Christmas means kindness, celebration, and it’s not meant for punishment.

3. For days after such an ordeal they could not endure biting into a carrot.

(1) During the confinement, since there was nothing for them to do or eat, they helped themselves freely to carrots, and now they were fed up with carrots.

(2) ordeal: a difficult or painful experience, especially one that severely tests character or endurance; here it refers to the confinement in the vegetable cellar as a way of punishment for the children

(3) endure biting into a carrot: put up with eating a carrot. Here “endure” is followed by a gerund, but it can also, although much less frequently, be followed by an infinitive.

(4) bear, abide, suffer, endure, tolerate, stand

These verbs are compared in the sense of withstanding or sustaining what is difficult or painful to undergo.

Bear implies a putting up with sth. that distresses, annoys, pains, etc., without suggesting the way in which one sustains the imposition. It pertains broadly to capacity to withstand, e. g. That’s how he finds that he can bear anything.

Abide and the more emphatic suffer suggest passive acceptance of or resignation to that which is painful or unpleasant, e. g. She couldn’t abide fools. He suffered their insults in silence.

Endure implies a holding up against prolonged pain, distress, etc. and stresses stamina or patience. It specifies a continuing capacity to face pain or hardship, e.g. Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured and little to be enjoyed.

Tolerate and the more informal stand both imply self-imposed restraint of one’s opposition to what is offensive or repugnant. Stand implies resoluteness of spirit, e.g. The pain was too intense to stand. Actors who can't stand criticism shouldn’t perform in public. Tolerate, in its principal application to something other than pain, connotes reluctant acceptance despite reservations, e. g. A decent examination of the acts of government should be not only tolerated, but encouraged.

Para. 14

And of course there was the traditional sauerkraut with flecks of caraway seed. I remember one Christmas Day, when a ten-gallon crock of it in the basement, with a stone weighting down the lid, had blown up, driving the stone against the floor of the parlor, and my uncle had exclaimed, “Good God, the piano’s fallen through the floor.”

1. And of course there was the traditional sauerkraut with flecks of caraway seed.

(1) sauerkraut: chopped cabbage salted and fermented in its own juice

(2) fleck: a small bit or flake

2.I remember one Christmas Day, when a ten-gallon crock of it in the basement,with a stone weighting down the lid, had blown up, driving the stone against the floor of the parlor, and my uncle had exclaimed, “ Good God, the piano’s fallen through the floor.”

(1)There was too much fermentation in the crock, so the stone blew up.

(2) the piano’s fallen through the floor: A metaphor, comparing the hit of the stone against the floor to that of a piano falling through the floor: A metaphor. If a piano falls, there would be a thud, followed by sounds of all pitches made by the keys. In addition to recapturing the sounds, the metaphor also shows that the uncle has a sense of humor and paves the way for the later account of this interesting and colorful figure.

Para. 15

All the meat was from the home place too. Most useful of all, the goose—the very one which had chased me the summer before, hissing and darting out its bill at the end of its curving neck like a feathered snake. Here was the universal bird of an older Christmas: its down was plucked, washed, and hung in bags in the barn to be put into pillows; its awkward body was roasted until the skin was crisp as a fine paper; and the grease from its carcass was melted down, a little camphor added, and rubbed on the chests of coughing children. We ate, slept on, and wore that goose.

1. Most useful of all, the goose－the very one which had chased me the summer before, hissing and darting out its bill at the end of its curving neck like a feathered snake.

(1) The mention of the goose also brings a sense of nostalgia to people in the countryside; nowadays city dwellers would get a turkey instead of a goose. Besides nostalgia, the author also reveals the interesting way of thinking of a boy; he looks at the goose as a playmate who chased him and vividly recalls how the goose darted out its bill, comparing its curving neck to a feathered snake, an imagination out of naivety.

(2) the summer before: this summer, the summer before this Christmas

(3) dart: to move suddenly and fast

(4) bill: the horny jaws of a bird, usually projecting to a point; beak

2. Here was the universal bird of an older Christmas: its down was plucked, washed,and hung in bags in the barn to be put into pillows; its awkward body was roasted until the skin was crisp as a fine paper; and the grease from its carcass was melted down, a little camphor added, and rubbed on the chests of coughing children.

(1) universal: that can be used for a great many or all kinds, forms, sizes, etc. The reason why the goose was regarded as a universal bird is explained as the sentence goes on.

(2) down: (n). soft, fluffy feathers, as the outer covering on young birds or an inner layer of feathers on adult birds鹅绒

(3) awkward: not having grace or skill; clumsy, as in form or movement; ungainly. The boy was not used to a goose without feather and therefore considered it strange and ugly.

(4) fine: very thin or slender

(5) grease: soft or melted animal fat, especially after rendering

(6) carcass: the dead body of an animal, often specifically of a slaughtered animal dressed as meat

(7) rubbed on the chests of coughing children: the grease from the goose added with a little camphor was used as a home remedy for coughing children

(8) This part brings out the ingenuity of the farmers. It is the tradition of people taking part in the Westward movement. They made use of everything and they played the role of farmer, hunter, doctor, carpenter, etc.

3. We ate, slept on, and wore that goose.

(1) A summary of the goose as a multipurpose bird: we ate its meat, slept on pillows filled with its down, and were treated with its grease when ill.

(2) There are other animals similar to the goose in the sense that they are essential to the life of the people, for instance, the buffalo for American Indians and the yak for Tibetans.

Para. 16

I was blessed as a child with a remote uncle from the nearest railroad town, Uncle Ben, who was admiringly referred to as a “railroad man,” working the run into Omaha. Ben had been to Chicago; just often enough, as his wife Minnie said with a sniff in her voice, “to ruin the fool, not often enough to teach him anything useful.” Ben refused to eat fowl in any form, and as a Christmas token a little pork roast would be put in the oven just, for him, always referred to by the hurrying ladies in the kitchen as “Ben’s chunk.” Ben would make frequent trips to the milk house, returning each time a little redder in the face, usually with one of the men toward whom he had jerked his head. It was not many years before I came to associate Ben’s remarkably fruity breath not only with the mince pie, but with the jug I funnel sunk in the bottom of the cooling tank with a stone tied to its neck. He was a romantic person in my life for his constant travels and for that dignifying term “railroad man,” so much more impressive than farmer or lawyer. Yet now I see that he was a short man with a fine natural shyness, giving us knives and guns because he had no children of his own.

1. I was blessed as a child with a remote uncle from the nearest railroad town, Uncle Ben, who was admiringly referred to as a “railroad man ”, working the run into Omaha.

(1) to be blessed with: to be fortunate in having sth. /sb. The boy was happy to have such an uncle.

(2) remote: distantly related by blood or marriage

(3) remote uncle:远房叔叔

(4) who was admiringly referred to as a “railroad man” : Uncle Ben was regarded as a local celebrity, because of the national sentiment at the time. The railroad was fondly referred to as the “iron horse”, and it had great impact on the national economy.

(5) The cornerstone of the first railroad in the United States－Baltimore & Ohio Railroad－was laid in 1828: since then and for the rest of the 19th century, the mileage has been growing dramatically. In 1830, there were 23 miles of railroad in the United States. By 1840 this had grown to 2, 808, and by 1860 there were 30, 626 miles. The completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869 started a boom in construction, and by 1900 rail mileage grew to more than 201, 000. Railroads had a great impact on American society－they changed people’s perception of time, space and distance; they were the first companies to conduct business on a national scale; offered employment to a large number of immigrants; they facilitated the settlement of much of the middle and Western part of the country; they helped to bring different classes of people together, etc. (Based on “Railroad History”, http://www.nationalrr museum. org)

(6) Omaha: A city of eastern Nebraska on the Missouri River and the Iowa border with a population of 335, 795. Founded in 1854 with the opening of the Nebraska Territory, it grew as a supply point for westward migration, especially after the coming of the railroad in 1869. It was territorial capital from 1855 to 1867. Omaha literally means “upstream people” in the Indian language.

(7) run: a trip, journey, esp. a single, customary, or regular trip, as of a train, ship, or plane

2. Ben had been to Chicago; just often enough, as his wife Minnie said with a sniff in her voice, “to ruin the fool, not often enough to teach him anything useful”.

(1) Ben had been to Chicago: Another reason why the boy felt blessed. Unlike most of the village people, Uncle Ben had traveled outside and seen the world.

(2) with a sniff in her voice: regarding something in a contemptuous or dismissive manner 语气中颇显不屑According to Uncle Ben’s wife, his trips into big cities didn’t do him any good. Perhaps she was not used to his changes, and thought he only picked up some bad habits from the city people instead of learning anything useful.

2. Ben refused to eat fowl in any form, and as a Christmas token a little pork roast would be put in the oven just for him, always referred to by the hurrying ladies in the kitchen as “Ben’s chunk”.

(1) fowl: any of various domestic birds used as food, specifically the chicken, duck, goose, key, etc.

(2) token: a sign, indication, or symbol. On Christmas day, everybody was supposed to eat a bit of the bird, and because Uncle Ben didn’t like it, he was given a piece of pork as a substitute. Token can also be used as an adjective, meaning “done as an indication or a pledge” (a token payment); “perfunctory; minimal” (a token gesture of reconciliation; token resistance); or “merely symbolic” (a token woman on the board of directors). Token also appears in such phrases as “by the same token” (in like manner; similarly) and “in token of ”(as an indication of).

(3) chunk: a short, thick piece, as of meat or wood

4. Ben would make frequent trips to the milk house, returning each time a little redder in the face, usually with one of the men toward whom he had jerked his head.

(1) Why did Ben often go to the milk house? Did he go there alone?

Ben went to the milk house to get some wine, and he would motion someone to go with him. The author realized this only a few years later.

(2) returning each time a little redder in the face: The effect of wine began to show. The boy didn’t know the word “drunk”, or perhaps he never thought in that line; he innocently described Uncle Ben as getting “a bit redder in the face”, thus creating a humorous effect.

(3) jerk: to pull, twist, push, thrust, or throw with a sudden, sharp movement, Uncle, Ben motioned one of the men out.

5.It was not many years before I came to associate Ben’s remarkably fruity breath not only with the mince pie, but with the jug I found sunk in the bottom of the cooling tank with a stone tied to its neck.

(1) fruity breath: breath smelling richly of fruit. Uncle Ben had drunk quite a lot of wine, and that’s why he had the freshness, succulence, and sweetness of ripe fruit in his breath.

(2) A bottle of wine was lowered to the bottom of the cooling tank by tying a stone around its neck.

(3)几年之后，我才知道本叔叔带有浓郁果香的口气不仅是因为吃了甜馅饼，还和瓶颈上系着石头、沉在冷却箱下面的葡萄酒罐子有关。

6. He was a romantic person in my life for his constant travels and for that dignifying term “railroad man”, so much more impressive than farmer or lawyer.

(1) romantic: passionate, adventurous, idealistic, etc.

(2) travels: (pl ) a series of trips, journeys, tours, etc. taken by a person or persons

(3) dignifying term:令人倍显尊贵的称呼

(4) Nearly everybody in the village was a farmer and there were quite a number of lawyers around. Or perhaps at that time people didn’t think highly of lawyers.

7. Yet now I see that he was a short man with a fine natural shyness, giving us knives and guns because he had no children of his own.

(1) In this sentence, “yet” indicates a change of tone; and “now” introduces the author’s recollection today, contrasted with the impression of Uncle Ben in the mind of an eight-year-old.

(2) fine: with no impurities, refined

(3) a short man with a fine natural shyness:天生腼腆的矮个男子